It seems that the abbreviation AI and the phrase “deep learning” get thrown around an awful lot lately. Understandably so, as presented in the chart below, the frequency of Google searches for “deep learning” has grown considerably in the last 5 years, one can easily see an exponential growth pattern. Everyone seems to want to find out what exactly it is and how to benefit.

The increase of interest reflects the change of focus of industry leading companies rather precisely. Nvidia, Intel, AMD and now Fujitsu have set out on a quest to create the best – most capable hardware for artificial intelligence. All of the aforementioned companies have come out or are coming out with AI optimized hardware.

Remember Google Glass – the way ahead of its time, privacy nightmare – Google’s take on augmented reality that nobody has heard anything about in four years? Well, it turns out its making a comeback in the enterprise market.

Reportedly, Alphabet, the parent company of Google, revealed its plans for the augmented reality glasses on Tuesday. The new – Enterprise Edition of Glass – is going to be used by professionals who need a heads-up display while they work.

A company called Augmedix is offering the device as a part of their subscription service for doctors. Additionally, workers from companies like Volkswagen, General Electric and Boeing are utilizing Google Glass to keep their hands free while performing various tasks.

The shares of Netflix surged more than 10% in after-hours trading on Monday after the on-demand video streaming giant beat analyst expectations for top-line as well as subscriber growth. The amount of international subscribers surpassed the amount of subscribers in the US for the first time, growing by 1.01 million and 4.27 million respectively. Revenue came in at $2.79b, indicating annual growth of 32%. However, Netflix reported negative cash-flow of $608 million, down from negative $423 million reported last quarter.

Elon Musk, in an interview at the National Governors Association meeting, said that AI is a fundamental risk to the human civilization. He backed his claims by saying that robots are going to be smarter than humans in any way, therefore having an edge over the regular person, eventually using the knowledge to destroy the human race.

Musk mentioned that the way to prevent something like that from happening is to proactively start regulating the creation of artificial intelligence, restricting the creation of something that could be harmful to the civilization.

The London Taxi company has come out with statement saying that a new, electric, version of the famous London taxi is coming out later this year. Reportedly, the new taxis are going to have a range of around 400 miles, with the emission-free range being north of 70 miles. No doubt this will have a positive impact on the air quality of London.

The air isn’t the only thing positively affected by the new vehicles. On average, the taxi drivers are going to save an estimated hundred pounds per week on fuel, which would equate to saving over 5000 pounds per year. Summing it up: you do less harm to the environment and you increase your income by about 21%. Sounds pretty good…

LINK: Tesla Starts Producing Its Model 3
The first Tesla Model 3 rolls off the production line!
It’s finally here! The first Tesla Model 3 rolled of the production line on July 9th, as Elon Musk tweeted a photo of the newly-built vehicle. According to a series of tweets, it was poised to be delivered to Ira Ehrenpreis, the first of four hundred thousand people to put down the $1000 pre-order deposit. As it turns out, Mr. Ehrenpreis was kind enough to let Musk have the first ever production vehicle.
The new Model 3 has a base price of $35’000, making it the most affordable Tesla to date.

Our weighted average return in June was +0.23%, bringing our year-to-date return to +8.49%.

Last month we mentioned that we saw weakness in tech stocks, and in June, we saw continued volatility in this sector. Thankfully, our rotation into different sectors helped offset losses on our remaining tech exposure.

One outperformer of note was Nike Inc. Nike shares have struggled for the past year-and-a-half, but they appreciated by 11.34% in June due to better than expected results and positive guidance going forward. Nike is a phenomenal brand that continues to invest in cutting-edge technology, yet it was trading at a significant discount to its peers. It had also been caught up in the widespread selloff of retail stocks. We were buyers of Nike shares on price weakness in May. When quality companies sell off, you sometimes have to ask yourself “will this be trading higher in five years?” Our answer was an emphatic “yes”. Moreover, 55% of Nike’s revenues come from outside the US, which means that their foreign revenues can be a tailwind in a weakening USD environment.

By looking at some of the biggest finance sites on Tuesday, one would think that a financial apocalypse had started. Amazon shares appeared to have plummeted by more than 70%. Luckily, it turned out to be a glitch caused by the websites using the wrong data sent to them by NASDAQ.

Reportedly, no securities were traded at the absurdly low price, as trading had been halted.

Unlocking your phone and authenticating mobile payments is soon going to be as easy as just looking at your iPhone. According to people familiar with the product, Apple is currently testing 3-D Face Scanning technology, which might replace the fingerprint scanner on the upcoming iPhone.

Earlier this week, the price of the virtual currency Ethereum was hit by a bout of fake news. Take a breath, and read that sentence again. If it seems the least bit ludicrous, then you are absolutely right. If not, then you are also right. All things are worth whatever someone else is willing to pay for them. Virtual or not.

Today it is recovering nicely…

Should you buy Ethereum? Go ahead. Or don’t. I suppose it depends how rich your imagination is.